MacOS¶

Configuring Python 3.11¶

To be compatible with bpy (the Blender python interface), pyvale requires python 3.11. Homebrew is a free and open-source commonly used package manager for macOS that often simplifies the process of installing, updating, and managing software.

Install via Homebrew¶

Simple installation instructions for Homebrew itself be found at https://brew.sh/.

After you have homebrew setup, you can install python3.11 with:

brew install python@3.11

To verify the installation you can try the command:

which python3.11

Install via Python.org¶

To install python3.11 from https://python.org hover over the “Downloads” link in the navigation. Select macOS. You’ll then need to select 3.11.9 (or whatever the latest version of 3.11 is). This should download the installer which you can then run through.

If you have multiple python version the above instructions should put python in location /Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.11/bin/. In that folder there should be a python3, which is really a link to python3.11.

Virtual Environment¶

We recommend installing pyvale in a virtual environment using venv or pyvale can be installed into an existing environment of your choice. To create a specific virtual environment for pyvale first open a terminal Then navigate to the folder you want to install the environment in (using cd) and use:

python3.11 -m venv pyvale-env

This will create a virtual environment called ‘pyvale-env’ in a folder of the same name. To activate the virtual environment from your current location type this into your terminal:

source pyvale-env/bin/activate

If this has worked you should see ‘(pyvale-env)’ at the start of your command prompt line showing the environmen is activated. If you ever need to activate the environment in a new command prompt you just need to run the ‘activate’ script again from the folder you are currently in.

Virtual Environments in VSCode¶

To use you virtual environment in VSCode to run some of the examples you will need to make sure you have selected your virtual environment as your python interpreter. To do this first open the folder that you want to work from which should be the same folde that contains your virtual environment folder (that is the pyvale-env folder). Now go to the search bar at the top or open the command palette using cmd+shift+P and type ‘Python: Select Interpreter’. You should see your virtual environment listed which you can select. Now when you run python scripts VSCode should automatically use your virtual envvironment.

Installation from PyPI¶

pyvale can be installed from PyPI. Ensure you virtual environment is activated (you should see ‘(pyvale-env)’ terminal) and run the following:

pip install pyvale

You should now be able to start a python 3.11 interpreter in your terminal using (again make sure your pyvale-env is active):

python

Now check that you can import pyvale in the interpreter:

import pyvale

If there are no errors then everything has worked and you can now move on to looking at some of our examples to get you started in the basics section.

Installation from Source¶

This will only be needed if you want an editable installation of pyvale for most applications users will want to use the PyPI version above.

Dependencies¶

Apple has disabled OpenMP for the default C/C++ compilers shipped with Xcode. Therefore, it’s reccomended you install either gcc OR``llvm`` AND libomp using the homebrew (https://brew.sh/) package manager. For gcc you can install it via homebrew with the command:

brew install gcc

You’ll then need to ensure that the new compilers installed via homebrew are used during the build process:

export CC=/opt/homebrew/opt/gcc/bin/gcc-15
export CXX=/opt/homebrew/opt/gcc/bin/g++-15

You might need to change the number at the end depending on which version of gcc you have installed.

Alternatively, if you want to use llvm and libomp you can install them with

brew install llvm libomp

You’ll then need to ensure that the new compilers installed via homebrew are used during the build process:

export CC=/opt/homebrew/opt/llvm/bin/clang
export CXX=/opt/homebrew/opt/llvm/bin/clang++

Clone and Install the Github Repository¶

Clone pyvale to your local system using git along with submodules using:

git clone git@github.com:Computer-Aided-Validation-Laboratory/pyvale.git

For this case it is normally easier to keep your virtual environment stored in the pyvale folder so create a virtual environment there first. Then, ensure you virtual environment is activated and run the following commmand from the pyvale folder:

pip install -e .

This will create an editable/developer installation of pyvale. Now check that you can import pyvale in the interpreter:

import pyvale

If there are no errors then everything has worked and you can now move on to looking at some of our examples to get you started in the basics section.